View source for Roy McMurtry

{{short description|Canadian politician (1932–2024)}}
{{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific-prefix    = [[The Honourable]]
| name                = Roy McMurtry
| honorific-suffix    = {{Post-nominals|size=100%|OC|OOnt|KC}}
| image               = Roy mcmurtry.jpg
| office              = [[Chief Justice of Ontario]]
| term_start          = 1996
| term_end            = 2007
| predecessor         = [[Charles Dubin]]
| successor           = [[Warren Winkler]]
| office1             = [[Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom]]
| term_start1         = 1985
| term_end1           = 1988
| primeminister1      = [[Brian Mulroney]]
| predecessor1        = [[Don Jamieson (politician)|Donald Jamieson]]
| successor1          = [[Donald Stovel Macdonald]]
| office2             = [[Attorney General of Ontario]]
| term_start2         = 1975
| term_end2           = 1985
| premier2            = [[Bill Davis]]
| predecessor2        = [[John Clement (Ontario politician)|John Clement]]
| successor2          = [[Bob Welch (politician)|Robert Welch]]
| office3             = [[Member of Provincial Parliament (Ontario)|Ontario MPP]]
| term_start3         = 1975
| term_end3           = 1985
| predecessor3        = [[Leonard Mackenzie Reilly]]
| successor3          = [[David James McFadden|David McFadden]]
| constituency3       = [[Eglinton (provincial electoral district)|Eglinton]]
| party               = [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Progressive Conservative]]
| birth_name          = Roland Roy McMurtry
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1932|05|31}}
| birth_place         = [[Toronto]], [[Ontario]], Canada
| residence           = Toronto, Ontario
| death_date          = {{Death date and age|2024|03|18|1932|05|31}}
| education           = {{unbulleted list|[[Trinity College, Toronto]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]])|[[Osgoode Hall Law School]]}} ([[LLB]])
| occupation          = Lawyer, jurist
| spouse              = Ria Jean Macrae
| children            = 6
}}

'''Roland Roy McMurtry''' {{postnominals|size=100%|OC|OOnt|KC}} (May 31, 1932 – March 18, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, judge and politician in [[Ontario]]. He was a [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Progressive Conservative]] member of the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]] from 1975 to 1985, serving in the cabinet of [[Bill Davis]] as [[Attorney General of Ontario|Attorney General]] and as [[Solicitor General of Ontario|Solicitor General]].<ref name=gg/> After leaving politics, McMurtry was [[High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom|High Commissioner of Canada to the United Kingdom]] between 1985 and 1988. He became a judge in 1991 and was appointed [[Chief Justice of Ontario]] in 1996. McMurtry retired from the bench in 2007 and returned to the private practice of law.<ref name="Hull & Hull"/>

==Early life==
Roland Roy McMurtry was born in [[Toronto]] as the son of lawyer Roy McMurtry. He was educated at [[St. Andrew's College (Aurora, Ontario)|St. Andrew's College]] and graduated in 1950. He received a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree from the [[University of Toronto]] ([[University of Trinity College|Trinity College]]) in 1954, and a [[Bachelor of Laws]] degree from [[Osgoode Hall Law School]] in 1958. While attending university, he was admitted to the [[Zeta Psi]] fraternity and became a close friend of future [[Premier of Ontario]] [[Bill Davis]], his [[Canadian football]] teammate.

While studying, he was hired to teach football at [[Upper Canada College]]. He also taught adult literacy classes at [[Frontier College]], working through the day on construction projects and teaching at night. He was a trial lawyer for seventeen years before entering politics. He also wrote a weekly column in the ''[[Toronto Sun]]'' during the early 1970s.

==Political career==
In the 1960s, he worked with [[Dalton Camp]] and [[Norman Atkins]] to remove [[John Diefenbaker]] as leader of the [[Progressive Conservative Party of Canada]].

McMurtry suffered a back injury during the 1971 [[Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership conventions|Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership convention]] and was able to exempt himself from choosing between Davis and rival candidate [[Allan Lawrence (politician)|Allan Lawrence]], whose campaign was managed by Atkins. Davis defeated Lawrence by 44 votes on the final ballot. A few weeks later, McMurtry organized a meeting which brought together the Davis and Lawrence leadership teams. The resulting alliance, known as the [[Big Blue Machine]], dominated the Progressive Conservative Party into the 1980s.

===Entering the legislature===
Allan Lawrence resigned his [[St. George (Ontario provincial electoral district)|St. George]] constituency in late 1972 to move to federal politics, and McMurtry was recruited by Davis as the Progressive Conservative candidate for a March 1973 [[by-election]]. He was unexpectedly defeated by [[Ontario Liberal Party|Liberal Party]] candidate [[Margaret Campbell (politician)|Margaret Campbell]], a well-known municipal politician. He was first elected to the [[Legislative Assembly of Ontario]] two years later, in the [[1975 Ontario general election|1975 provincial election]], defeating Liberal candidate [[Frank Judge (politician)|Frank Judge]] in the [[Eglinton (provincial electoral district)|Eglinton]] constituency.

===Attorney General===
[[File:Royag.jpg|thumb|McMurtry as Attorney General]]
Davis won a [[minority government]] in the 1975 election, and McMurtry was immediately appointed to cabinet as [[Attorney General of Ontario|Attorney General]]. He held this position until 1985, and he also served as [[Solicitor General of Ontario|Solicitor General]] from 1978 to 1982.

McMurtry introduced a large number of law reform bills and was largely responsible for family law reform in Ontario. In 1978, he took the first steps to make Ontario's legal system bilingual and to start the process of translating Ontario's statutes into French. He was a major advocate for human rights and improved race relations.

McMurtry was also the provincial minister responsible for emergency planning. During the [[1979 Mississauga train derailment]], he largely deferred to Mayor [[Hazel McCallion]], who was the public face of the crisis handling.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mississauga-miracle-remembering-the-disaster-that-forced-240-000-people-to-flee-1.5354329| title=Mississauga Miracle: Remembering the disaster that forced 240,000 people to flee| first=Mike| last=Wise| date=9 November 2019| work=CBC News}}</ref>

====Patriating the Constitution====
McMurtry was a [[Red Tory]],<ref name="Globe">Erin Anderssen, "Doing Canada justice," ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'', December 13, 2003, pg. F.5.</ref> and he was one of Davis's closest advisers in government. As Attorney-General, he had been a primary negotiator for Ontario in the [[Pierre Trudeau|Trudeau]]-era constitutional negotiations. He appeared as counsel for Ontario in the Patriation Reference before the Supreme Court of Canada. In November 1981, he played a major role in brokering the deal that achieved [[patriation]] of the [[Canadian Constitution]] and the creation of the [[Charter of Rights and Freedoms]]. A late-night "kitchen accord" between McMurtry, [[Jean Chrétien]] and [[Roy Romanow]] on 6 November 1981 broke a deadlock in negotiations, and resulted in the governments of all provinces except [[Quebec]] agreeing to the proposed reforms to the Constitution, which came into law the following year.

====Susan Nelles prosecution====
One of McMurtry's lowest points was his role in the prosecution of nurse [[Susan Nelles]], who was charged with the murder of a number of infants at the [[The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto|Hospital for Sick Children]] in Toronto. The charges were dropped following a preliminary hearing and Nelles was exonerated by the [[Grange Commission]], a [[royal commission]] called upon to examine the deaths. McMurtry was criticized for his Ministry's role in her wrongful prosecution. In a 2007 interview, McMurtry, looking back at the incident, said "I can remember that I had been away with my family on a school break, when I came back and saw the headlines, I brought in my deputy attorney-general, and said: 'What the hell is going on here? You've had a nurse arrested at one of the world's most famous hospitals?' " McMurtry said that local prosecutors failed to consult the ministry before consenting to the charges and that examining the case McMurtry had doubts that Nelles had exclusive access to all of the children.<ref name="Globe2">{{cite news|author=Kirk Makin|title=The regrets of a consensus-building chief justice|work=The Globe and Mail|date=April 4, 2007|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-regrets-of-a-consensus-building-chief-justice/article1073214/|access-date=October 25, 2023}}</ref>

====Bathhouse raids====
McMurtry was also Attorney-General at the time of the [[1981 Toronto bathhouse raids]] which were widely denounced as one of the most socially regressive acts in the province's history.<ref name="Globe2"/> At the time it was widely believed that the raids were approved by McMurtry. In a 2007 interview, however, McMurtry said that this was not the case. "The irony of the whole thing was that I had expressed my concern to the chief of police; that it really looked like we were dissolving into a police state. The whole thing looked terrible. Without a doubt, that was one of my most frustrating experiences," said McMurtry.<ref name="Globe2"/>

===Leadership race===
When Davis resigned as Progressive Conservative leader and premier in 1985, McMurtry sought the party's leadership at the party's [[Ontario Progressive Conservative leadership conventions, 1985|January 1985 leadership convention]]. He started as the underdog in the campaign, but impressed many delegates through his performance in candidates' debates and polling data showing him as the preferred choice of Ontario voters. During the contest, McMurtry was sometimes criticized for remaining too long in one portfolio. While his opponents all had diverse ministerial experience, McMurtry's expertise was focused more narrowly on matters of the law. His supporters included [[Robert Elgie]], [[Frank Drea]], [[Reuben Baetz]] and [[Bob MacQuarrie]].

McMurtry won a total of 300 votes on the first ballot, considerably more than had been expected. It was not sufficient, however, to place better than fourth in a field of four, after [[Frank Miller (Canadian politician)|Frank Miller]], [[Dennis Timbrell]] and [[Larry Grossman (politician)|Larry Grossman]]. He was eliminated from the contest and gave his support to Grossman, a fellow Red Tory.

McMurtry's support was enough to move Grossman into second place on the second ballot, ahead of the more centrist Timbrell. Timbrell's delegates were divided on the last ballot, which allowed the conservative Miller to win the convention. Miller gave McMurtry the option of remaining as Attorney General in the new government, but he declined and announced his retirement from politics.

===Cabinet posts===
{{s-start}}
{{Canadian cabinet member navigational box header|ministry=Bill_Davis}}
{{ministry box cabinet posts
|post2preceded = [[George Albert Kerr|George Kerr]]
|post2         = [[Solicitor General of Ontario|Solicitor General]]
|post2years    = 1978–1982
|post2note     = 
|post2followed = [[George William Taylor|George Taylor]]
|post1preceded = [[John Clement (Ontario politician)|John Clement]]
|post1         = [[Attorney General of Ontario|Attorney General]]
|post1years    = 1975–1985
|post1note     = 
|post1followed = [[Bob Welch (politician)|Bob Welch]]
}}
{{s-end}}

==Diplomatic career==
On February 4, 1985, Canadian [[Secretary of State for External Affairs (Canada)|External Affairs Minister]] [[Charles Joseph Clark|Joe Clark]] announced that McMurtry had been appointed to succeed [[Don Jamieson (politician)|Donald Jamieson]] as Canada's [[High Commission of Canada in London|High Commissioner]] to the [[United Kingdom]]. He served in this capacity until 1988. Upon his return to Canada, he resumed his law practice and served from 1989 to 1990 as chairman and chief executive officer of the [[Canadian Football League]].

==Judicial career==
McMurtry was appointed Associate Chief Justice of the Superior Court (Trial Division) in Ontario in 1991, and he became [[Chief Justice]] of that court in 1994. He became [[Chief Justice of Ontario]] in 1996, heading the entire court system in the province and leading the [[Court of Appeal for Ontario]]. That court gained a degree of public attention in 2003 when it ruled in ''[[Halpern v. Canada (Attorney General)]]'' that provisions of the ''[[Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms]]'' guaranteeing equality under the law required the Province of Ontario to issue marriage licences to [[same-sex marriage in Canada|same-sex couples]]. For this, ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'' named McMurtry and his fellow judges the "Nation Builders of 2003."<ref name="Globe"/>

In the weeks prior to his retirement in 2007, McMurtry was widely praised as being a unifying force and consensus-builder during his tenure as Chief Justice. "Under Chief Justice McMurtry's leadership, we pulled together and we worked hard, and the chief justice reached out to the bar and he sought their support, and he got it," said Court of Appeal (and future [[Supreme Court of Canada|Supreme Court]] Judge [[Michael Moldaver]] in a speech. "Thanks to his courage, leadership and vision, we now have an appeal process that is capable of delivering quality justice in a timely and efficient manner."<ref name="Globe2"/>

"I don't want to paint him as the Next Coming, but he has been a great uniter," said Clifford Lax, a veteran Toronto civil litigator. "He is a really very nice person who is able to find common ground. In a quiet, unassuming way, he has won a lot of converts to what he has done."<ref name="Globe2"/>

During his term, McMurtry also acted as the [[Mayor of Toronto]]'s race relations commissioner and helped create Pro Bono Ontario, which helps provide free legal services to the poor and encourages lawyers to provide ''[[pro bono]]'' services.<ref name="Globe2" /> In 2000, he initiated the Public Legal Education Task Force, leading to the establishment of the [https://ojen.ca/en/ Ontario Justice Education Network.] OJEN promotes understanding, education and dialogue to support a responsive and inclusive justice system.

McMurtry is credited with helping transform a backlogged and sometimes fractious court into a highly efficient, harmonious body.<ref name="Globe2"/>

==Post-bench legal career==
McMurtry returned to the practice of law after retiring from the bench. He was a member of the firm [[Gowlings|Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP]] until August 2014, when he moved to Hull & Hull LLP.<ref>"McMurtry to join Hull & Hull LLP", ''The Globe and Mail'', August 29, 2014.</ref><ref name="Hull & Hull">{{cite web |url=https://hullandhull.com/team/hon-r-roy-mcmurtry/ |title=The Hon. Roy McMurtry |work=Hull & Hull LLP |access-date=2021-01-17}}</ref> McMurtry was a member of Pro Bono Law Ontario's Advisory Board.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Pro Bono Ontario Staff & Board Members|url = https://www.pblo.org/about-us/board-staff/|access-date = 2015-09-17|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150914134657/https://www.pblo.org/about-us/board-staff/|archive-date = 2015-09-14}}</ref>

{{as of|2019}}, McMurtry was president of the Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History, which made several oral histories and co-published two of his books:<ref name="Osgoode Society">{{cite web | url=https://www.osgoodesociety.ca/book-author/the-honourable-r-roy-mcmurtry/ | title=The Honourable R. Roy McMurtry | publisher=Osgoode Society for Canadian Legal History | access-date=September 9, 2019}}</ref> 
* ''Memoirs and Reflections'' (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and the University of Toronto Press, 2013)
* ''Essays in the History of Canadian Law: Volume X – A Tribute to Peter Oliver'' (Toronto: The Osgoode Society and University of Toronto Press, 2008), 471 pp. (editor with Jim Phillips and [[John T. Saywell]])

==Personal life==
McMurtry was married to Ria Jean Macrae, with whom he had six children and 12 grandchildren. His eldest son, Jim McMurtry, ran as a [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberal]] in [[British Columbia]] in the [[2006 Canadian federal election|2006 federal election]], placing second to [[Conservative Party of Canada|Conservative]] [[Russ Hiebert]].

McMurtry was a landscape painter, originally taught by [[A.J. Casson]], and donated pieces to charity auctions.

A [[Red Tory]], McMurtry expressed dislike towards the [[Stephen Harper]] government from 2006 to 2015, claiming it  suffered from a lack of compassion, as well as for causing more division in Canadian politics.<ref>Roy McMurtry, on politics and progress; Jim Coyle, The Star, September 13, 2013.</ref> McMurtry supported [[Eric Hoskins]] in the [[2013 Ontario Liberal Party leadership election]] and [[Peter Elgie]], [[Green Party of Canada]] candidate for the [[York—Simcoe (provincial electoral district)|York-Simcoe]] riding in the [[2014 Ontario general election]] and son of [[Robert Elgie]], a Red Tory [[Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario|Progressive Conservative]] who served as [[Ministry of Labour (Ontario)|Minister of Labour]] from 1978 to 1982 and MPP for [[York East (provincial electoral district)|York East]] from 1977 to 1985.<ref>What Roy McMurtry can teach us about never giving up; Steve Paikin, TVO, March 16, 2020.</ref>

McMurtry died on March 18, 2024, at the age of 91.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tsekouras |first1=Phil |title=Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91 |url=https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/roy-mcmurtry-former-ontario-attorney-general-dies-at-91-1.6813172 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240319130423/https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/roy-mcmurtry-former-ontario-attorney-general-dies-at-91-1.6813172 |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 19, 2024 |access-date=19 March 2024 |publisher=CTV News |date=19 March 2024}}</ref>

==Honours==
In 2007, McMurtry was awarded the [[Order of Ontario]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Order of Ontario Recipients Announced|url=http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/english/news/2007/n20071219.shtml|date=December 19, 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080513214020/http://www.citizenship.gov.on.ca/english/news/2007/n20071219.shtml|archive-date=May 13, 2008}}</ref> In 2009, he was made an Officer of the [[Order of Canada]] "for his distinguished career of public service, notably as chief justice of Ontario, and for his extensive volunteer involvement in many social and multicultural initiatives".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5815|title=Governor General announces 60 new appointments to the Order of Canada|date=July 1, 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090705124004/http://www.gg.ca/media/doc.asp?lang=e&DocID=5815|archive-date=July 5, 2009}}</ref><ref name=gg>{{Canadian honour|Type=orc|ID=4518|accessdate=3 January 2021}}.</ref>

In 2013, McMurtry was given the [[G. Arthur Martin]] medal for outstanding contributions to criminal justice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://criminallawyers.ca/about-us/awards/|title=Awards}}</ref> He served as the 12th [[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of [[York University]] from 2008 to 2014.

The headquarters of the [[Attorney General of Ontario]], the "McMurtry-Scott Building", is named in honour of McMurtry and [[Ian Scott (Ontario politician)|Ian Scott]] (Attorney General from 1985 to 1990).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons}}
*[https://hullandhull.com/team/hon-r-roy-mcmurtry/ The Hon. Roy McMurtry] – Hull & Hull LLP
*[http://www.osgoodehall.com/mcmurtry2.html McMurtry Art Exhibit] – online exhibition of McMurtry's paintings
*[http://www.tvo.org/cfmx/tvoorg/tvoutils/globalfiles/VideoPop.cfm?spot_id=2363&micrositefolder=theagenda Roy McMurtry - 25 Years of the Charter of Rights] – video of 2007 interview on ''[[The Agenda with Steve Paikin]]''
*{{Ontario MPP biography|id=roland-roy-mcmurtry}}

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{{succession box|title=[[Chancellor (education)|Chancellor]] of [[York University]]|before=[[Peter Cory]]|after=[[Greg Sorbara]]|years=2008–2014}}
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{{succession box|before=[[Charles Dubin]]|title=[[Chief Justice of Ontario]]|years=1996–2007|after=[[Warren Winkler]]}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Don Jamieson (politician)|Don Jamieson]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Canadian High Commissioners to the United Kingdom|Canadian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom]]|years=1985–1988}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Donald Stovel Macdonald]]}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:McMurtry, Roy}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2024 deaths]]
[[Category:Attorneys general of Ontario]]
[[Category:Canadian Football League commissioners]]
[[Category:Chancellors of York University]]
[[Category:High commissioners of Canada to the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Lawyers in Ontario]]
[[Category:Justices of the Court of Appeal for Ontario]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Ontario]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of Canada]]
[[Category:Osgoode Hall Law School alumni]]
[[Category:Politicians from Toronto]]
[[Category:Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario MPPs]]
[[Category:Trinity College (Canada) alumni]]
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[[Category:Upper Canada College alumni]]
[[Category:St. Andrew's College (Aurora) alumni]]
[[Category:Canadian King's Counsel]]
[[Category:20th-century King's Counsel]]
[[Category:20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario]]